Show City Columbia
Sitemap ' 'Show City' Columbia' --- --- --- --- --- What was THE Original Flying Columbia ? ' : What it initially was for the 'Columbia' Exposition, and then likely little-modified upto the Time Comstock Seized it 1902). The REAL Exposition cost around $28 million ($784 million today). With (as the games story goes) the Columbia Flying Show allegedly funded by the US Government (for the most part), it would be quite small. Contrary Idea : Statue of Liberty was completed 1886 just 7 years before 1893, and the Federal government (the statue being unpopular to the politicians there) didn't even bother to provide the money to build its base ($280,000) -- US private citizens HAD too do this. NOTE - The US Government would ONLY have funded such a project if IT got access to ALL the technology involved. (Note - that the game really does NOT mention if this did NOT happen). Ditto for any industrialists (which would be a more likely source of its funding). So how much would Show 'City' Columbia cost? Hint - its fancy building superstructure wouldn't be BRICK or STONE -- rather of lathing, plaster, burlap fiber ("staff"), and chickenwire. There would be Concrete and Wood for the decking. We got no details of exactly HOW such a monstrosity 'flies' or as to structurally how that all worked and held together (Engineering-wise, its all cow plop). This kind of thing (this Big Floaty Project) had never been done before (certainly on this scale it was still experimental), so it would no doubt cost a great deal more ''versus normal construction work. Likely it was done with many corrections of failures and adjustments, as the various issues and problems were worked out. Likely the project was LATE in completion (even more late than the Exposition itself which had been planned to start in late 1892). SO It would initially be far smaller that the game shown 'Columbia'. Lets Contrive "the story" that multiple dimensions Columbias later 'glombed' (merged) together to make it larger (Stealing those might include Comstock assassinating other Comstocks - good story stuff there ...) BTW, The original bit of Columbia would be quite flat - People get tired of climbing stairs 'for their own sake'. We can have the 'merged' version be more 3D (In its layout) -- even allow that perverse overlapping because of the disorders of 'merging'). Here are some expected elements such a MOVING city would have : * Its Structure base (girders, cement - you better have something sturdy to put engines and such on - those other cheap materials wouldnt stand up to that) * The sidewalk and base platforms * The buildings Original 'Show' bits : * Townhall historical exhibit * Modern Residence Exhibit (Look!!! Oooh... Indoor Plumbing...) * Air Museum & Exhibit (Zeppelin things - but better) * Tourist Souvenir & Gift Shop (Voxophone tour disks and 3D pictures) * American Product displays (some sponsors - 'the wonders of Steel' ) * Advanced Technology displayed (with a floaty ride) * Prominade with telescopes and a Talking Tour (Vox-o-phone PLAYERS) * Moving sidewalk (this one actually goes someplace, unlike the 1893 one - it would ring Columbia) * Theater Of The Air (good propaganda - aerial stunt show) * Restaurant & Casino & Bar (aether liquor ?) * Scenic Skyline (tour and scenic ride) something to 'WOW the Rubes' (seriously not really all the efficient as a 'freight hauler' - you still have to get the stuff too/from the skyline) * Landing ramp and Landing 'boats'(extra fare) * the Bandstand * Photographic studio (to show the people back home) * Flying 'Barge' siteseeing around the Exposition and Chicago ?? * 'Cabins' for Tourists (a small deluxe hotel) * Public Restrooms with very modern accessories (in First Class section) * A Christopher Columbus (impersonator) tour guide Behind the scenes : * Actor/Crew Housing Residence/props * Pilothouse * Powerhouse Engineroom & fuel * Crew Commissary * Magic Floatyshit™ mechanisms (those blue orb thingees all over) * Controls and Power systems (Something to do with the 'siphon'? but that was BEFORE Elizabeth, no?) * Buildings and furnishings (plaster and chickenwire - fake just like the real Exposition) * Maneuvering engines and guidance, etc * Utilities : water/lights/communications(wires everywhere in those days - many uninsulated) * Transportation - more connected 'roads' with a (flat) base street level (to get rid of the stairs/steep ramps at least for main arteries) * Lost&Found * Security and Brig * Firefighters (modern floating fire wagon) * First Aid station * Water Supply, with new amazing 'fil-ter-ation' system --- --- --- '''Things A Later Comstock-Run/'pirate' Columbia Had to Worry About : * Paying for the cultic expansion and maintenance (gotta 'keep em believing' or they turn on you) -- Unbelievers were dealt with. * Supplies are required just to feed its expanded population (and all other things to simply survive on). Luxuries (like toilet paper) for the 'Upper Crust' who could be the most trouble of all if they weren't bought off. * Obtaining 'Servitors' (Untermenschen) who toil and support 'their betters' - kidnappings and scams to obtain them. * Handling mistakes/accidents/misfortunes - the crashings of independently moving sections of the city (lots of destruction - bad idea led to them being largely welded onto primary city)) * Health Impact of Hypoxia (lack of oxygen at altitude), Motion-Sickness Vomitosis (from the whole thing vibrating/swaying/turning), Eye Damage - from altitudes greatly increased UV, Coldness of the altitude. * Fear of warships and big cannon (and planes) firing at them, unless they stay high enough (really cold up there), and away from First World countries. * Fuel use (Columbia doesn't move by magic, does it ? Oh thats right...) Coal powered Steam engines ? Or just more "Quantum makes it work 'cuz' ". * Escaping Servitors(Serfs) (easy paths with any resupply method) --- OR for more fun, a Slave Rebellion. * Population Replacements for people falling over the side (and suicides and escapes and murders/executions) We never did get a population figure for Comstock's Columbia (the original 'Show City' place would be quite small). Even with big chunks seen (later) floating in the distance, it still seems to be composed MOSTLY of empty Air, rather than the living space required for any 'Town' sized (real) population. --- --- --- . . . . . . . . . . The Original "Show City" Columbia was a TOURIST BUSINESS OPERATION. People from across the country would go there and have their pictures taken with some dramatic real 'flying' background (or possibly a fake one if the urban haze made real 'dramatic' backgrounds unavailable). Note- this probably WOULD NOT be a scene in the game Columbia's Battleship Bay as everyone in Columbia who could possibly have wanted such a picture WOULD ALREADY HAVE ONE (its been there for 20 years and the trapped population would have had their pictures for that long). Now if there was a mandated money-grubbing Have Your Picture Taken With the Prophet --- OR ELSE!!!, THAT would fit in with the game's ignorant Faux-Society and Faux-Religion and Faux-Economy. --- --- --- Columbia Would Have To Grow - Wouldn't It ?? ' : It could hardly turn into the needed Dystopia/Fail-topia if it just remained a reteriorating small 'Show City' Exposition attraction. The Taxpayers only funded the 'Show City' originally, which would only have samplings of parts of a 'modern' city - containing the normal, most numerous/sizable (housing, commercial, industry) elements being present/displayed. So other elements would have to be subsequently added to Columbia (to contain a population which can be only that of a 'town'). Various distance scenes show Columbia being spread out, BUT you actually need to densely pack things together to fit any large numbers of people (hint - its empty space between all those distant floaty bits). When you spread things out too much, all you do is complicate its operating as a cohesive 'city'/town (and ALSO create a rather cumbersome entity which is expected in the game to move about the world all together as one). Being spread out meant that its transport systems had to be greatly extended. Bad, as you should not want to have people take half their day getting to/from work on that disjoint transport system shown in the game. For the population's "lower orders" (immigrants, minorities, worker/serfs) THEIR part of the 'City' would be far less fancy/showy, and would be more appropriate cramped rats-nest tenements, and be all bare/iron girdery/unfinished. No waste of neat stone sidewalks and walls for them, when simple metal mesh and wood planks suffices. You probably wouldn't have too many 'workers' living in something like 'shantytown', as any European immigrant or 'poor white trash' would revolt/leave. You also don't create/build a shoddy problematic "shantytown" intentionally, as for the same effort you could provide more adequate housing. It wouldn't be able to grow on its own out of thin air Consider that any intentional building requires a Floatyshit™ block of 'land' with all its mechanisms (whatever they are -- never really shown ...) before creating the lower-class quality structures upon it (and all the materials that go into them -- again wherever that comes from, something never really shown...). This is NOT something that just happens when solid vacant ground is there in our world, and just needs to be occupied and built upon to come to exist. New building WOULD be required as Columbia's population grew between mid 1905s-1912. Before that the place was basically a traveling theater full of 'actors' showing off American Ideals as a 'Show City' - under US Government control/funding. Once Comstock seized Columbia, it had to support itself and that required adding all the additional elements for a viable city. The Comstock-era population being constituted of : various 'minority' (''cattle) stock brought in as slave labor (the prison inmates, and others(?)), then there were the various 'White People' who were of "The South Will Rise Again" type, or were Pseudo-Christian Cultists that Comstock had attracted. The oddest group to explain are the European Immigrants (like the Irish - the usual cliche) who are publicly castigated in Columbia as inferior by the 'Founder' types. THEY simply would '''NOT go there if/when they knew of the Racist/Oppressive/Pseudo-Protestant-Cultist environment they would face, and how the floating city was being run. It is not like the Irish were escaping the Potato Famine, and there already was the rest of America where other Irish had found better homes. (( '' THAT is a HUGE gap in the logic of the game's bizarre narrative the writers have contrived/messed up '' )). At least 7 years of population increase via children would also add in (probably mostly the Untermenschen - they 'breed like rabbits' you know - and we are told so in the game). The economy (including more than a few amusement venues) is presented as largely industrial/manufacturing/commercial (with rather strangely oversized industrial facilities). A city with such large industry HAS TO serve customers outside of its immediate area to be justified -- which Columbia is never shown to have (some kind of explanation could easily have been fit into the story - if they cared at all). Otherwise there is no reason to have those huge regional-scale factories (it is only there to FORCE the Class Warfare plot stuff from the initial game dystopia theme). There also is the serious problem of where Columbia's raw materials (of ALL types) came from (which is also NEVER explained, or shown). SO, how the huge ornate/fancy illogical cityscape and its people came to be really is NOT adequately explained/justified, as one game reviewer commented : "It all seeming like merely a prop". --- --- --- ' A "First Class Museum - Suitable for Ladies, Children and Gentlemen" (seen in an old picture back in the Nickelodeon days) ' : Something you would see in Columbia. WHAT EXACTLY then is IN a Second and Third Class 'Museum' ??? Such sounds like what might be found in more unsavory oldie "Museums". Note- 'Museum' at one time was synonymous with 'Freak Show'. --- --- --- --- --- . .